TITLE: DANNY AUTHOR: Patricia McGoldrick Goldberg © 1996 ABSTRACT: In memory of my father-in-law. Although we came from diverse cultural backgrounds, we shared a great deal of family-life values. My husband and I share in an interfaith marriage and hope to pass on many of the values we have received from our parents of different faith communities. ARTICLE: Danny is gone from the house now His soul took a long time to leave He died in the middle of the night Short days after New Year’s Eve He did not make any trouble Or, for anyone, cause any fuss His heart stopped all of a sudden Only a week After saying good-bye to all of us It seemed to me that For a time My father-in-law’s shadow stayed at the bamboo table Sitting just under the kitchen clock And I thought as I passed in the middle of the night How great it would be to talk About how Each day he rose early To ride the buses of Montreal Visiting the last of his clients Some who were big and some who were small For forty years Danny was wed To the woman he loved most dear And he worked to take care of his family For each one of those busy years. Danny loved to make soups In winter so hot and summer chilly cold Beans and barley and gazpacho Were legends in Danny’s household He loved Stilton blue cheeses And he trimmed sprawling red raspberry canes He smoked while he read great big detective books Danny loved to laugh with his friends To converse in Yiddish and French And was proud when his pretty wife got the looks He had a short temper And thick grey-white hair Did the best to love his family Taught his children to be honest and loving and fair He had four grandchildren Who were healthy and strong And he liked to watch them growing along Danny was a friend To those he had known for years He grew tired As he added the numbers In those columns so slim and narrow At the end of the day He was ready for Jeopardy’s challenges And a not-so-early retirement He enjoyed the quiet of the evening hours And rose very early each morn’ To work out the dreams of others Like Daniel of old in the Bible We mourned his death In the tradition of his faith Friends and family Went along to his grave And sat Shiva For a quiet few days Danny’s soul drifted out to meet its maker And the shadow was done from the kitchen- We said good-bye As much as we were able.

This article was originally published in Cross Cultures Magazine in Volume 7 - Issue 1 - 1997. Unauthorized copying, distribution or other usage without express written permission of the publisher is prohibited.